Oakland Athletics at Los Angeles Angels Betting Preview
The Los Angeles Angels find themselves in a bit of a skid as they head into Saturday night’s contest with the Oakland Athletics. The A’s picked up a 4-2 win in Friday’s series opener, which has pushed the Angels’ losing streak to four games.
Los Angeles was coming into Friday night’s game after getting swept over the course of three games by the Rangers in Arlington. The 4-2 series-opening loss was disappointing for the Angels, who took three of four from the A’s last weekend in Oakland. Oddsmakers still have LAA a -141 favorite for Saturday’s meeting.
Oakland Good at Stealing One
The A’s have put a 7-game losing streak behind them to go 7-5 over their last 12 games, although most of that damage has come with four wins against Detroit. Oakland has done a good job of snagging at least one win in their last two series with these Angels (1-3) and the Twins (1-2) so do the Athletics already have their one victory for the weekend?
Paul Blackburn did a solid job of limiting the Angels’ offense on Friday night as he threw 4.2 IP, allowing 2 ER. The Oakland bullpen finished things out by not allowing a hit over the final 4.1 IP split up between four relievers.
Frankie Montas will aim for another solid outing from Oakland pitchers as he takes the mound on Saturday. Montas struck out 12 Angels batters last Sunday, although the Angels still captured a 4-1 victory.
Angels Slumping Hard
Los Angeles had hoped to put an atrocious visit to Texas behind them back at home on Friday night, but it wasn’t meant to be in the 4-2 loss. This current four-game skid has dropped the Angels to 1.5 GB of the Astros in the AL West.
The Angels have allowed 27 runs during their four-game losing streak, so Michael Lorenzen will need to try to put an end to that as he takes the mound on Saturday. This will be the second straight start vs. Oakland for Lorenzen, who threw 7.0 IP while allowing just one earned run in last Saturday’s 9-1 LAA win.
Athletics/Angels Betting Prediction
The -141 price tag isn’t horrible for an Angels team that took three of four from Oakland last weekend, but at the same time, it’s also hard to pull the trigger on Los Angeles as they are in the midst of a four game slide. Can Oakland pick up a second straight win at +120 after getting the victory as +174 underdogs in the opener?
Friday night’s outing was a low-scoring affair at 4-2, and ultimately it looks like that’s the way game two is headed. The run total is low at 7.5, but both starting pitchers were solid against the same team in their previous starts last weekend.
The A’s scored six runs in four games vs. LAA in the last series, and the Angels couldn’t manage a single hit vs. the Oakland bullpen on Friday.
Betting Pick: Under 7.5
